Artist’s Atelier

Wherever I go, there I am.

To set the record straight, I don’t in reality have an atelier. It is a lovely vision, though…don’t you think? I see perhaps a third floor attic or the loft of an old barn with an over-sized half-moon window, dormers with Taos blue window frames and weathered Chesapeake maple plank floors. The natural light pours in on my large chipped-paint drawing table on which sit vibrant Mexican planting pots and mini aluminum wash-tubs filled with sharpened pencils, crayons, colored Prismamarkers and Micron pens. One skeleton wood frame wall is thumb- tacked with works in progress and favorite dog photos. Another wall is exposed natural brown brick. The opposite wall is floor-to-ceiling block glass brick. The space holds three vintage unfinished white oak work tables, several wood cabinets for storage, and a old hickory wooden bookshelf filled with art and childrens books. A small Navajo rug is scattered at the foot of a cushioned toffee Mission chair that I relax and repair to between work sessions. Pepper is peacefully napping. Naturally, it’s all very neat and organized…eclectic yet artfully arranged. In this tasteful serene space, pregnant with creative possibility, Puppy Paws pooches are born.

Back to reality….

I actually work on what formerly was my dining room table as well as what currently serves as my dining room table. My materials share space in my closet with my clothes as the space I work in is also my all-around living space. With two near floor-to-ceiling windows on opposite walls, yes, the San Diego light is fantastic. (Artists are always talking about THE LIGHT…it’s true…it is important). Aside from the year of construction going on in two neighboring lots , the jet engine noise from being under the approach path to the airport, and Pepper’s daily warning alarm and noisy ruff ruff ruff tirade when the post-person arrives, it’s fairly peaceable. More importantly, I don’t need to commute anywhere and Pepper is with me all the time. The truth is, that when it’s time for the pooches to be born, I feel graced to be in the exact right place that I need to be.

Favorite Art Quotes

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I could not say any other way – things I had no words for.    Georgia O’Keefe

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.     Henry Matisse

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.     Pablo Picasso

By nature I am curious about life and this extends to my business.     Paul Gaugin

I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing. Vincent Van Gogh

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.     Aristotle

Favorite Life Quotes

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.     Ralph Waldo Emerson

I beg you…to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.  Don’t search for answers, which could not be given you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually without ever noticing it, live your way into the answer….     Rainer Marie Rilke

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it,  no matter who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your reason and your own common sense.     Buddha

Dance as if no one is watching you. Love as if you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.     Souza

Think where man’s glory begins and ends. And say my glory was I had such friends. William Butler Yeats

The greatest strength is gentleness.     Native American Proverb

In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing. Theodore Roosevelt

Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.   Ben Franklin

It’s Up to You, New York, New York

The year was 1974 when I first encountered the Big Apple. I was spending the summer before I entered college, on the Jersey shore working on the Boardwalk in a candy store in Asbury Park. What carefree, optimistic and glorious sun-baked times with my best friend as my roommate in an Ocean Grove boarding house. We spent the mornings on the beach with the music from my portable radio from the NYC radio station whose disc jockey consistently reminded us to “R-o-o-o-l-l-l your bods – time to flip over and tan your other side.” Late afternoons and evenings found us packaging pounds of chocolate turtles, paper bags of salt-water taffy and boxing the ever popular Criterion fudge to tourists and New York weekenders.

So close to the renown metropolis, I felt compelled to see what all the fuss was about and boldly boarded a commuter train by myself that whisked me into Penn Station on a day off. As soon as I stepped onto her crowded busy streets I was enamored. Tilting my head back to take in the enormous skyscrapers, I felt like twirling and spinning a la That Girl Marlo Thomas and wished I had a beret to toss up in the air. The hustle, the bustle, and the clipped pace whereby everything from the accent to the deli line seemed to be synchronized by some special New York standard time seemed pulsating and sophisticated. Being limited of time and funds, I spent less time than I would have liked to on my subsequent return trips that summer.

The moments I remember are not ones of the great attractions, but of the small discoveries…the peacefulness in the giant city on a park bench in Washington Square while wondering in what building around the square Bob Dylan had stayed , the biggest and best bagel and cream cheese in the world from a small deli in Greenwich Village, the pair of mint green corduroy bell bottoms I bought at my first encounter with The Gap.

As I prepare for another journey to this iconic American city, I wonder if I will still find the pulse of the City appealing after many years of  California living and my youth gone by. I wish I had the time this re-acquainting journey to see the things I still have on my list…The New York Public Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, Rockefeller Center, Ellis Island, the fabulous Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, a Broadway show,  and the list goes on and on.

But this time I will come to New York with answers to questions I could not even fathom in 1974.  Like, how do you get to Carnegie Hall? Google Maps will tell you. Like, I finally found out what I wanted to be when I grew up and I know now what to do with the rest of my life. I will journey again to New York , this time to peddle my note and greeting card wares at my first National Stationery show. Puppy Paws Productions is making its national debut.  Wow, who knew? After all these years, I am still optimistic about this riveting city as the perfect place to launch my Puppy Paws dream business.  So start spreading the news…I’m leaving in May…

My Bite Out Of the Big Apple

Initially, it bit back….Well, it had been a long flight and I was hungry and tired. The surly disinterested JFK shuttle staff did nothing to reassure me when my reserved ride was an hour late. Dumping me out a half a block from my hotel due to evening rush hour traffic, lugging my heavy suitcases, did not make me feel very welcomed. Uh, oh, I thought…maybe the friendly CA accommodating spirit and niceties I am now accustomed to will be an expectation I can dump out of my high-rise hotel window. That is, if I could freakin’ open it. Easy does it, B.

When I finally hit the streets after settling into my hotel, I found that nothing will initiate you into the NYC pace like that frantic time of day. The New Yorkers worker bees, anxious to get home, whether by subway, ferry, bus, or taxi, poured out of everywhere, cell phones to their ears or in hand, heading every which direction at a cardio-pumping clip. Best, I found, to let the Manhattan crowd set your pace; otherwise a lot unfamiliar body brushing happens and a stranger’s long hair in front of you might well be whipped about your face as they change directions on a dime.

After a meal and some respite from the throng from a second-story-vantage eatery, I was re-energized and tried to get the lay of my new land. I found I was just a few blocks from Greeley and Herald Squares and two blocks from the Empire State Building whose impressive stature greeted me each morning as I left my hotel. I found myself evenings within walking distance of Broadway, Times Square, the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, Madison Square Garden, the JP. Morgan Museum, and (though a hoof or two) Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Trump Tower, the la-di-dah boutiques of 5th Avenue, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as well as where I “worked” at Jacob Javitz Convention Center.

I quickly got used to the traffic horns, the flocks of Indy 500 cabby’s, the Bellevue should-have-never-been-discharged-early homeless and began to really enjoy the sights and sounds of the vibrant bigger-than-life City that literally never sleeps (like the Wine and Chocolate Bar across from my hotel open until the wee hours – what’s not to like about THAT?)

I found the best hot dog cart in NYC, devoured thin crust pizza, admired Macy’s windows while munching on a giant salty pretzel, stood in awe of the biggest library in the world, then went inside to discover the real Winnie-the Pooh and friends encased in Plexiglas in the Children’s Library.

In my brief exploration of my immediate surroundings, I had a blast, as I discovered one NYC icon after another. With never enough time to see all I might have liked to, I nonetheless, packed a whole lot of trekkin’ and looky-see into my brief visit and will, indeed, return.  Like countless tourists who visit, I ended up buying a cheesy memento of my time there that now hangs on my San Diego refrigerator door – I heart NY. I do.

A Tribute To A Very Special Cocker Spaniel

Nena Zamora, a beloved honorary member of the Puppy Paws Productions pack, left us too soon for doggy heaven August 4, 2009. At only seven years old, she was  diagnosed with AIHA (Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia) a blood disorder in which a dogs immune system destroys it’s own red blood cells. The onset of her disease was dramatic and sudden and the resulting symptoms rapidly critical. Though she was given every possibility to win her battle against this often fatal disease, she did not beat the 50/50 odds, and succumbed to the peaceful eternal universe in the loving arms of her human Mama.

Her unique personality endeared her to us deeply. She had a penchant for hiding her little toys in whatever territory she claimed as her own (and all territories were hers) . It was not unusual to find a latex piggy under a sofa pillow, a stuffed horsey under the Christmas tree skirt, or a bunny nestled in the folds of the bedsheets. All seats she believed to be her throne…from the couch to a camp chair to a hammock. She had a disdain of her feet being touched, more than likely from an unpleasant nail clipping memory. She loved to plow her nose through the sand at Coronado Dog Beach, but cared little for the ocean. She spent many happy times with our CEO Pepper frolicking at Grape St. Park, and though Pepper considered her a pesky little sister, secretly she was rather fond of her adoring first little sister. She obligingly sported a Ladybug, a Chef, and a Cheerleader costumes for Halloween and was a fashion trendsetter in her summer sundress and winter wool sweater. As brothers were added to her adopted  family, she ensured with her alpha dominance, their adherence to pack rules. Her adventurous nature found her enjoying a road trip to San Francisco, camping in Cuyamaca Park, and lounging by a dog-friendly resort pool in Palm Springs.

Her private memorial was held in the backyard as we laid her for one last time in the hammock she used to love to lay with her owner in and surrounded her with  Black-Eyed-Susan flowers. Her bright ruffian spirit will remain with us always.

For more information about AIHA and the research being done to eradicate this disease visit the Morris Animal Foundation.